Charness, Mark

Mark Charness was born May 18, 1923 in Montreal. He was raised in a loving, hard-working family, where he learned to give generously of himself.  He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on the first day he was eligible. With a keen gift for math, Mark trained as a navigator, earning the rank of Flying Officer. He was stationed in Little Staughton, England, and served with the 582 Squadron of the prestigious Royal Air Force Pathfinders Group, where casualty rates were extraordinarily high.  He flew in a Lancaster, where he joined up with an Australian crew.  Once the war was over, he returned to Canada and started up his own business.  Mark used his wartime severance pay to start that business, and he grew Budmark Converters into a major Canadian success story, becoming a pre-eminent supplier of textiles to Canada’s burgeoning clothing manufacturing trade.  Mark was first interviewed for this project by his granddaughter Katherine, when she was in Mr. Scott’s CHC2D class.  In 2012 he was interviewed again by Katherine, this time with Michael Lawee and Zach Brown.  He visited us one last time in 2016, speaking to Mr. Masters’ Grade 11 history class.